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Curiosity Is, In Great And Generous Minds, The First Passion And The Last; And Perhaps Always Predominates In Proportion To The Strength Of The Contemplative Faculties. He Who Easily Comprehends All That Is Before Him, And Soon Exhausts Any Single Subject, Is Always Eager For New Inquiries; And In Proportion As The Intellectual Eye Takes In A Wider Prospect, It Must Be Gratified With Variety, By More Rapid Flights And Bolder Excursions.

-Samuel Johnson

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Curiosity Is, In Great

Samuel Johnson

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Curiosity Is, In Great And Generous Minds, The First Passion And The Last; And Perhaps Always Predominates In Proportion To The Strength Of The Contemplative Faculties. He Who Easily Comprehends All That Is Before Him, And Soon Exhausts Any Single Subject, Is Always Eager For New Inquiries; And In Proportion As The Intellectual Eye Takes In A Wider Prospect, It Must Be Gratified With Variety, By More Rapid Flights And Bolder Excursions.

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There Prevails Among Men Of Letters, An Opinion, That All Appearance Of Science Is Particularly Hateful To Women; And That Therefore Whoever Desires To Be Well Received In Female Assemblies, Must Qualify Himself By A Total Rejection Of All That Is Serious, Rational, Or Important; Must Consider Argument Or Criticism As Perpetually Interdicted; And Devote All His Attention To Trifles, And All His Eloquence To Compliment.

Love Is The Wisdom Of The Fool And The Folly Of The Wise.

If The Guardian Or The Mother Tell The Woes Of Willful Waste, Scorn Their Counsel And Their Pother, You Can Hang Or Drown At Last.

Disease Generally Begins That Equality Which Death Completes; The Distinctions Which Set One Man So Much Above Another Are Very Little Perceived In The Gloom Of A Sick Chamber, Where It Will Be Vain To Expect Entertainment From The Gay, Or Instruction From The Wise; Where All Human Glory Is Obliterated, The Wit Is Clouded, The Reasoner Perplexed, And The Hero Subdued; Where The Highest And Brightest Of Mortal Beings Finds Nothing Left Him But The Consciousness Of Innocence.

The Hostility Perpetually Exercised Between One Man And Another, Is Caused By The Desire Of Many For That Which Only Few Can Possess. Every Man Would Be Rich, Powerful, And Famous; Yet Fame, Power, And Riches, Are Only The Names Of Relative Conditions, Which Imply The Obscurity, Dependence, And Poverty Of Greater Numbers.

That Observation Which Is Called Knowledge Of The World Will Be Found Much More Frequently To Make Men Cunning Than Good.

Liberty Is The Parent Of Truth, But Truth And Decency Are Sometimes At Variance. All Men And All Propositions Are To Be Treated Here As They Deserve, And There Are Many Who Have No Claim Either To Respect Or Decency.

For Life Affords No Higher Pleasure, Than That Of Surmounting Difficulties, Passing From One Step Of Success To Another, Forming New Wishes And Seeing Them Gratified. He That Labours In Any Great Or Laudable Undertaking, Has His Fatigues First Supported By Hope, And Afterwards Rewarded By Joy... To Strive With Difficulties, And To Conquer Them, Is The Highest Human Felicity.

A Man Will Turn Over Half A Library To Make One Book.

The Coquette Has Companions, Indeed, But No Lovers,--for Love Is Respectful And Timorous; And Where Among Her Followers Will She Find A Husband?

They Who Have Already Enjoyed The Crowds And Noise Of The Great City, Know Their Desire To Return Is Little More Than The Restlessness Of A Vacant Mind, That They Are Not So Much Led By Hope As Driven By Disgust, And Wish Rather To Leave The Country Than To See The Town.

Bashfulness May Sometimes Exclude Pleasure, But Seldom Opens Any Avenue To Sorrow Or Remorse.

Ease, A Neutral State Between Pain And Pleasure ... If It Is Not Rising Into Pleasure Will Be Falling Towards Pain.

When A Language Begins To Teem With Books, It Is Tending To Refinement; As Those Who Undertake To Teach Others Must Have Undergone Some Labour In Improving Themselves, They Set A Proportionate Value On Their Own Thoughts, And Wish To Enforce Them By Efficacious Expressions; Speech Becomes Embodied And Permanent; Different Modes And Phrases Are Compared, And The Best Obtains An Establishment. By Degrees One Age Improves Upon Another.

Among The Calamities Of War May Be Justly Numbered The Diminution Of The Love Of Truth By Falsehoods Which Interest Dictates And Credulity Encourages. A Peace Will Equally Leave The Warrior And The Relater Of Wars Destitute Of Employment; And I Know Not Whether More Is To Be Dreaded From Streets Filled With Soldiers Accustomed To Plunder, Or From Garrets Filled With Scribblers Accustomed To Lie.

Faction Seldom Leaves A Man Honest, However It Might Find Him.

Where No Man Thinks Himself Under Any Obligation To Submit To Another, And, Instead Of Co-operating In One Great Scheme, Every One Hastens Through By-paths To Private Profit, No Great Change Can Suddenly Be Made; Nor Is Superior Knowledge Of Much Effect, Where Every Man Resolves To Use His Own Eyes And His Own Judgment, And Every One Applauds His Own Dexterity And Diligence, In Proportion As He Becomes Rich Sooner Than His Neighbour.

Money Confounds Subordination.

Let Him Go Abroad To A Distant Country; Let Him Go To Some Place Where He Is Not Known. Don't Let Him Go To The Devil, Where He Is Known.

Commerce Can Never Be At A Stop While One Man Wants What Another Can Supply; And Credit Will Never Be Denied, While It Is Likely To Be Repaid With Profit.

No Degree Of Knowledge Attainable By Man Is Able To Set Him Above The Want Of Hourly Assistance.

There Are Three Distinct Kind Of Judges Upon All New Authors Or Productions; The First Are Those Who Know No Rules, But Pronounce Entirely From Their Natural Taste And Feelings; The Second Are Those Who Know And Judge By Rules; And The Third Are Those Who Know, But Are Above The Rules. These Last Are Those You Should Wish To Satisfy. Next To Them Rate The Natural Judges; But Ever Despise Those Opinions That Are Formed By The Rules.

I Do Not Know, Sir, That The Fellow Is An Infidel; But If He Be An Infidel, He Is An Infidel As A Dog Is An Infidel; That Is To Say, He Has Never Thought Upon The Subject.

Men Are Generally Idle, And Ready To Satisfy Themselves, And Intimidate The Industry Of Others, By Calling That Impossible Which Is Only Difficult.

It Is Better That Some Should Be Unhappy Rather Than That None Should Be Happy, Which Would Be The Case In A General State Of Equality.

Before Dinner Men Meet With Great Inequality Of Understanding; And Those Who Are Conscious Of Their Inferiority Have The Modesty Not To Talk; When They Have Drunk Wine, Every Man Feels Himself Happy, And Loses That Modesty, And Grows Impudent And Vociferous; But He Is Not Improved; He Is Only Not Sensible Of His Defects.

So Different Are The Colors Of Life, As We Look Forward To The Future, Or Backward To The Past; And So Different The Opinions And Sentiments Which This Contrariety Of Appearance Naturally Produces, That The Conversation Of The Old And Young Ends Generally With Contempt Or Pity On Either Side.

Books Have Always A Secret Influence On The Understanding; We Cannot At Pleasure Obliterate Ideas; He That Reads Books Of Science, Thogh Without Any Fixed Desire Of Improvement, Will Grow More Knowing.

I Am Very Fond Of The Company Of Ladies. I Like Their Beauty, I Like Their Delicacy, I Like Their Vivacity, And I Like Their Silence.

Ignorance, Madam, Pure Ignorance.

...it Will Not Always Happen That The Success Of A Poet Is Proportionate To His Labor.

The Size Of A Man's Understanding Might Always Be Justly Measured By His Mirth.

Everybody Knows Worse Of Himself Than He Knows Of Other Men.

Ignorance, When It Is Voluntary, Is Criminal; And He May Be Properly Charged With Evil Who Refused To Learn How He Might Prevent It.

The Dangers Gather As The Treasures Rise.

Advice Is Offensive, Not Because It Lays Us Open To Unexpected Regret, Or Convicts Us Of Any Fault Which Had Escaped Our Notice, But Because It Shows Us That We Are Known To Others As Well As To Ourselves; And The Officious Monitor Is Persecuted With Hatred, Not Because His Accusation Is False, But Because He Assumes That Superiority Which We Are Not Willing To Grant Him, And Has Dared To Detect What We Desired To Conceal.

The Happiest Conversation Is That Of Which Nothing Is Distinctly Remembered, But A General Effect Of Pleasing Impression.

A Tavern Chair Is The Throne Of Human Felicity.

If Pleasure Was Not Followed By Pain, Who Would Forbear It?

The Arguments For Purity Of Life Fail Of Their Due Influence, Not Because They Have Been Considered And Confuted, But Because They Have Been Passed Over Without Consideration.

He Who Does Not Mind His Belly, Will Hardly Mind Anything Else.

The Happiness Of London Is Not To Be Conceived But By Those Who Have Been In It.

When The Desire Of Wealth Is Taking Hold Of The Heart, Let Us Look Round And See How It Operates Upon Than Whose Industry Or Fortune Has Obtained It. When We Find Them Oppressed With Their Own Abundance, Luxurious Without Pleasure, Idle Without Ease, Impatient And Querulous In Themselves, And Despised Or Hated By The Rest Of Mankind, We Shall Soon Be Convinced That If The Real Wants Of Our Condition Are Satisfied, There Remains Little To Be Sought With Solicitude Or Desired With Eagerness.

Of The Blessings Set Before You Make Your Choice, And Be Content. No Man Can Taste The Fruits Of Autumn While He Is Delighting His Scent With The Flowers Of The Spring: No Man Can, At The Same Time, Fill His Cup From The Source And From The Mouth Of The Nile.

Knock The 't' Off The 'can't.'

All Intellectual Improvement Arises From Leisure.

What Is The Reason That Women Servants ... Have Much Lower Wages Than Men Servants ... When In Fact Our Female House Servants Work Much Harder Than The Male?

What We Read With Inclination Makes A Much Stronger Impression. If We Read Without Inclination, Half The Mind Is Employed In Fixing The Attention; So There Is But One Half To Be Employed On What We Read.

Genius, That Power Which Constitutes A Poet; That Quality Without Which Judgment Is Cold, And Knowledge Is Inert; That Energy Which Collects, Combines, Amplifies And Animates.

People May Be Taken In Once, Who Imagine That An Author Is Greater In Private Life Than Other Men.

Don't Tell Me Of Deception; A Lie Is A Lie, Whether It Be A Lie To The Eye Or A Lie To The Ear.

There Is Nothing More Dreadful To An Author Than Neglect; Compared With Which Reproach, Hatred, And Opposition Are Names Of Happiness; Yet This Worst, This Meanest Fate, Every One Who Dares To Write Has Reason To Fear.

Excellence In Any Department Can Be Attained Only By The Labor Of A Lifetime; It Is Not To Be Purchased At A Lesser Price.

Reflect That Life, Like Every Other Blessing, Derives Its Value From Its Use Alone.

But Though It Cannot Be Reasonable Not To Gain Happiness For Fear Of Losing It, Yet It Must Be Confessed, That In Proportion To The Pleasure Of Possession, Will Be For Some Time Our Sorrow For The Loss.

It Is One Of The Maxims Of The Civil Law, That Definitions Are Hazardous.

Hoc Age ['do This'] Is The Great Rule, Whether You Are Serious Or Merry; Whether ... Learning Science Or Duty From A Folio, Or Floating On The Thames. Intentions Must Be Gathered From Acts.

And Panting Time Toil'd After Him In Vain.

I Believe Marriages Would In General Be As Happy, And Often More So, If They Were All Made By The Lord Chancellor, Upon A Due Consideration Of The Characters And Circumstances, Without The Parties Having Any Choice In The Matter.

The Business Of Life Is To Go Forward.

Pleasure That Is Obtained By Unreasonable And Unsuitable Cost Must Always End In Pain.

When Desperate Ills Demand A Speedy Cure, Distrust Is Cowardice, And Prudence Folly.

Laws Teach Us To Know When We Commit Injury And When We Suffer It.

Every State Of Society Is As Luxurious As It Can Be. Men Always Take The Best They Can Get.

To Excite Opposition And Inflame Malevolence Is The Unhappy Privilege Of Courage Made Arrogant By Consciousness Of Strength.

Truth, Sir, Is A Cow Which Will Yield Such People No More Milk, And So They Are Gone To Milk The Bull.

The Wise Man Applauds He Who He Thinks Most Virtuous; The Rest Of The World Applauds The Wealthy.

Whoever Commits A Fraud Is Guilty Not Only Of The Particular Injury To Him Who He Deceives, But Of The Diminution Of That Confidence Which Constitutes Not Only The Ease But The Existence Of Society.

Human Reason Borrowed Many Arts From The Instinct Of Animals.

These Papers Of The Day Have Uses More Adequate To The Purposes Of Common Life Than More Pompous And Durable Volumes.

The Future Is Purchased By The Present.

I Have Always Said The First Whig Was The Devil.

A Man Of Genius Has Been Seldom Ruined But By Himself.

Pendantry Is The Unseasonable Ostentation Of Learning. It May Be Discovered Either In The Choice Of A Subject Or In The Manner D Treating It.

Whatever Is Proposed, It Is Much Easier To Find Reasons For Rejecting Than Embracing.

There Is No Temper More Unpropitious To Interest Than Desultory Application And Unlimited Inquiry, By Which The Desires Are Held In A Perpetual Equipoise, And The Mind Fluctuates Between Different Purposes Without Determination.

Life Admits Not Of Delays; When Pleasure Can Be Had, It Is Fit To Catch It. Every Hour Takes Away Part Of The Things That Please Us, And Perhaps Part Of Our Disposition To Be Pleased.

No Place Affords A More Striking Conviction Of The Vanity Of Human Hopes Than A Public Library.

Knowledge Always Desires Increase, It Is Like Fire, Which Must First Be Kindled By Some External Agent, But Which Will Afterwards Propagate Itself.

Man's Chief Merit Consists In Resisting The Impulses Of His Nature.

Your Aspirations Are Your Possibilities.

No Member Of A Society Has A Right To Teach Any Doctrine Contrary To What The Society Holds To Be True.

We Never Do Anything Consciously For The Last Time Without Sadness Of Heart.

We Must Consider How Very Little History There Is--i Mean Real, Authentic History. That Certain Kings Reigned And Certain Battles Were Fought, We Can Depend Upon As True; But All The Coloring, All The Philosophy, Of History Is Conjecture.

Sir, When You Have Seen One Green Field, You Have Seen All Green Fields. Let Us Walk Down Cheapside.

A Good Wife Is Like The Ivy Which Beautifies The Building To Which It Clings, Twining Its Tendrils More Lovingly As Time Converts The Ancient Edifice Into A Ruin.

Confidence Is A Plant Of Slow Growth; Especially In An Aged Bosom

We May Have Many Acquaintances, But We Can Have But Few Friends; This Made Aristotle Say That He That Hath Many Friends Hath None.

No One Will Persist Long In Helping Someone Who Will Not Help Themselves.

Helping Someone

None But Those Who Have Learned The Art Of Subjecting Their Senses As Well As Reason To Hypothetical Systems Can Be Persuaded By The Most Specious Rhetorician That The Lots Of Life Are Equal; Yet It Cannot Be Denied That Every One Has His Peculiar Pleasures And Vexations, That External Accidents Operate Variously Upon Different Minds, And That No Man Can Exactly Judge From His Own Sensations What Another Would Feel In The Same Circumstances.

A Little Knowledge Is A Dangerous Thing - It Only Hastens Fools To Rush In Where Angels Fear To Tread.

In All Pleasures Hope Is A Considerable Part.

I Remember Very Well, When I Was At Oxford, An Old Gentleman Said To Me, "young Man, Ply Your Book Diligently Now, And Acquire A Stock Of Knowledge; For When Years Come Upon You, You Will Find That Poring Upon Books Will Be But An Irksome Task.

To Write Is, Indeed, No Unpleasing Employment, When One Sentiment Readily Produces Another, And Both Ideas And Expressions Present Themselves At The First Summons; But Such Happiness, The Greatest Genius Does Not Always Obtain; And Common Writers Know It Only To Such A Degree, As To Credit Its Possibility. Composition Is, For The Most Part, An Effort Of Slow Diligence And Steady Perseverance, To Which The Mind Is Dragged By Necessity Or Resolution, And From Which The Attention Is Every Moment Starting To More Delightful Amusements.

A Man Should Be Careful Never To Tell Tales Of Himself To His Own Disadvantage. People May Be Amused At The Time, But They Will Be Remembered, And Brought Out Against Him Upon Some Subsequent Occasion.

It Is, However, Not Necessary, That A Man Should Forbear To Write, Till He Has Discovered Some Truth Unknown Before; He May Be Sufficiently Useful, By Only Diversifying The Surface Of Knowledge, And Luring The Mind By A New Appearance To A Second View Of Those Beauties Which It Had Passed Over Inattentively Before.

Men Become Friends By A Community Of Pleasures.

When Once A Man Has Made Celebrity Necessary To His Happiness, He Has Put It In The Power Of The Weakest And Most Timorous Malignity, If Not To Take Away His Satisfaction, At Least To Withhold It. His Enemies May Indulge Their Pride By Airy Negligence And Gratify Their Malice By Quiet Neutrality.

Books Like Friends, Should Be Few And Well-chosen.

It Is, Indeed, At Home That Every Man Must Be Known By Those Who Would Make A Just Estimate Either Of His Virtue Or Felicity; For Smiles And Embroidery Are Alike Occasional, And The Mind Is Often Dressed For Show In Painted Honor, And Fictitious Benevolence.

Poetry Cannot Be Translated; And, Therefore, It Is The Poets That Preserve The Languages; For We Would Not Be At The Trouble To Learn A Language If We Could Have All That Is Written In It Just As Well In A Translation. But As The Beauties Of Poetry Cannot Be Preserved In Any Language Except That In Which It Was Originally Written, We Learn The Language.

Corneille Is To Shakespeare As A Clipped Hedge Is To A Forest.

It Is Our First Duty To Serve Society, And After We Have Done That, We May Attend Wholly To The Salvation Of Our Own Souls.

Where Grief Is Fresh, Any Attempt To Divert It Only Irritates.

People Seldom Read A Book Which Is Given To Them; And Few Are Given. The Way To Spread A Work Is To Sell It At A Low Price. No Man Will Send To Buy A Thing That Costs Even Sixpence Without An Intention To Read It.

Luncheon: As Much Food As One's Hand Can Hold.

A Woman Of Fortune Being Used The Handling Of Money, Spends It Judiciously; But A Woman Who Gets The Command Of Money For The First Time Upon Her Marriage, Has Such A Gust In Spending It, That She Throws It Away With Great Profusion.

General Irregularities Are Known In Time To Remedy Themselves. By The Constitution Of Ancient Egypt, The Priesthood Was Continually Increasing, Till At Length There Was No People Beside Themselves; The Establishment Was Then Dissolved, And The Number Of Priests Was Reduced And Limited. Thus Among Us, Writers Will, Perhaps, Be Multiplied, Till No Readers Will Be Found, And Then The Ambition Of Writing Must Necessarily Cease.

Surely Nothing Is More Reproachful To A Being Endowed With Reason, Than To Resign Its Powers To The Influence Of The Air, And Live In Dependence On The Weather And The Wind, For The Only Blessings Which Nature Has Put Into Our Power, Tranquillity And Benevolence. To Look Up To The Sky For The Nutriment Of Our Bodies, Is The Condition Of Nature; To Call Upon The Sun For Peace And Gaiety, Or Deprecate The Clouds Lest Sorrow Should Overwhelm Us, Is The Cowardice Of Idleness, And The Idolatry Of Folly.

It Is Surely Very Narrow Policy That Supposes Money To Be The Chief Good.

Every Man Is Of Importance To Himself.

Health Is So Necessary To All The Duties, As Well As Pleasures Of Life, That The Crime Of Squandering It Is Equal To The Folly.

Waste Cannot Be Accurately Told, Though We Are Sensible How Destructive It Is. Economy, On The One Hand, By Which A Certain Income Is Made To Maintain A Man Genteelly; And Waste, On The Other, By Which On The Same Income Another Man Lives Shabbily, Cannot Be Defined. It Is A Very Nice Thing; As One Man Wears His Coat Out Much Sooner Than Another, We Cannot Tell How.

A Man Is In General Better Pleased When He Has A Good Dinner Upon His Table, Than When His Wife Talks Greek.

Your Manuscript Is Both Good And Original; But The Part That Is Good Is Not Original, And The Part That Is Original Is Not Good.

As The Faculty Of Writing Has Chiefly Been A Masculine Endowment, The Reproach Of Making The World Miserable Has Always Been Thrown Upon The Women.

The Heroes Of Literary History Have Been No Less Remarkable For What They Have Suffered Than For What They Have Achieved.

Luxury, So Far As It Reaches The People, Will Do Good To The Race Of People; It Will Strengthen And Multiply Them. Sir, No Nation Was Ever Hurt By Luxury; For, As I Said Before; It Can Reach But A Very Few.

Pride Is A Vice, Which Pride Itself Inclines Every Man To Find In Others, And To Overlook In Himself

To Have The Management Of The Mind Is A Great Art, And It May Be Attained In A Considerable Degree By Experience And Habitual Exercise.

A Transition From An Author's Book To His Conversation, Is Too Often Like An Entrance Into A Large City.

Persius Has Justly Observed, That Knowledge Is Nothing To Him Who Is Not Known By Others To Possess It: To The Scholar Himself It Is Nothing With Respect Either To Honour Or Advantage, For The World Cannot Reward Those Qualities Which Are Concealed From It; With Respect To Others It Is Nothing, Because It Affords No Help To Ignorance Or Errour.

What Signifies Protesting So Against Flattery When A Person Speaks Well Of One, It Must Either Be True Or False, You Know If True, Let Us Rejoice In His Good Opinion If He Lies, It Is A Proof At Least That He Loves More To Please Me, Than To Sit S

It Was The Maxim, I Think, Of Alphonsus Of Aragon, That Dead Counsellors Are Safest. The Grave Puts An End To Flattery And Artifice, And The Information We Receive From Books Is Pure From Interest, Fear, And Ambition. Dead Counsellors Are Likewise Most Instructive, Because They Are Heard With Patience And With Reverence.

Read The Book You Do Honestly Feel A Wish And Curiosity To Read.

It Is Astonishing That Any Man Can Forbear Enquiring Seriously Whether There Is A God; Whether God Is Just; Whether This Life Is The Only State Of Existence.

Sir, You Must Not Neglect Doing A Thing Immediately Good From Fear Of Remote Evil; - From Fear Of Its Being Abused.

Agriculture Not Only Gives Riches To A Nation, But The Only Riches She Can Call Her Own.

The Belief Of Immortality Is Impressed Upon All Men, And All Men Act Under An Impression Of It, However They May Talk, And Though, Perhaps, They May Be Scarcely Sensible Of It.

Pity Is Not Natural To Man. Children Always Are Cruel. Savages Are Always Cruel.

Hypocrisy Is The Necessary Burden Of Villainy, Affectation Part Of The Chosen Trappings Of Folly; The One Completes A Villain, The Other Only Finishes A Fop.

He That Never Labors May Know The Pains Of Idleness, But Not The Pleasures.

Every Man's Affairs, However Little, Are Important To Himself.

He Who Fails To Please In His Salutation And Address Is At Once Rejected, And Never Obtains An Opportunity Of Showing His Latest Excellences Or Essential Qualities.

The True Measure Of A Man Is How He Treats Someone Who Can Do Him Absolutely No Good.

It Is Better A Man Should Be Abused Than Forgotten.

Without Frugality None Can Be Rich, And With It Very Few Would Be Poor.

Almost All The Moral Good Which Is Left Among Us Is The Apparent Effect Of Physical Evil.

Who Drives Fat Oxen Should Himself Be Fat.

To Scatter Praise Or Blame Without Regard To Justice Is To Destroy The Distinction Of Good And Evil. Many Have No Other Test Of Actions Than General Opinion; And All Are So Far Influenced By A Sense Of Reputation That They Are Often Restrained By Fear Of Reproach, And Excited By Hope Of Honour, When Other Principles Have Lost Their Power.

Flattery Pleases Very Generally. In The First Place, The Flatterer May Think What He Says To Be True; But, In The Second Place, Whether He Thinks So Or Not, He Certainly Thinks Those Whom He Flatters Of Consequence Enough To Be Flattered.

Economy Is The Parent Of Integrity, Of Liberty, And Of Ease, And The Beauteous Sister Of Temperance, Of Cheerfulness And Health.

You Cannot Give Me An Instance Of Any Man Who Is Permitted To Lay Out His Own Time Contriving Not To Have Tedious Hours.

That Kind Of Life Is Most Happy Which Affords Us Most Opportunities Of Gaining Our Own Esteem.

When A Man Marries A Widow His Jealousies Revert To The Past: No Man Is As Good As His Wife Says Her First Husband Was

Is Not A Patron One Who Looks With Unconcern On A Man Struggling For Life In The Water, And, When He Has Reached Ground, Encumbers Him With Help?

By Taking A Second Wife He Pays The Highest Compliment To The First, By Showing That She Made Him So Happy As A Married Man, That He Wishes To Be So A Second Time.

It Is Strange That There Should Be So Little Reading In The World, And So Much Writing. People In General Do Not Willingly Read, If They Can Have Any Thing Else To Amuse Them.

Club: An Assembly Of Good Fellows, Meeting Under Certain Conditions.

It Is As Foolish To Make Experiments Upon The Constancy Of A Friend, As Upon The Chastity Of A Wife.

Frugality May Be Termed The Daughter Of Prudence, The Sister Of Temperance, And The Parent Of Liberty.

Courage Is The Greatest Of All Virtues, Because If You Haven't Courage, You May Not Have An Opportunity To Use Any Of The Others.

Every Man Speaks And Writes With Intent To Be Understood; And It Can Seldom Happen But He That Understands Himself, Might Convey His Notions To Another, If, Content To Be Understood, He Did Not Seek To Be Admired; But When Once He Begins To Contrive How His Sentiments May Be Received, Not With Most Ease To His Reader, But With Most Advantage To Himself, He Then Transfers His Consideration From Words To Sounds, From Sentences To Periods, And, As He Grows More Elegant, Becomes Less Intelligible.

Lawful And Settled Authority Is Very Seldom Resisted When It Is Well Employed.

There Is A Frightful Interval Between The Seed And The Timber.

When A Poet Mentions The Spring, We Know That The Zephyrs Are About To Whisper, That The Groves Are To Recover Their Verdure, The Linnets To Warble Forth Their Notes Of Love, And The Flocks And Herds To Frisk Over Vales Painted With Flowers: Yet, Who Is There So Insensible Of The Beauties Of Nature, So Little Delighted With The Renovation Of The World, As Not To Feel His Heart Bound At The Mention Of The Spring?

Such Is The Uncertainty Of Human Affairs, That Security And Despair Are Equal Follies; And As It Is Presumption And Arrogance To Anticipate Triumphs, It Is Weakness And Cowardice To Prog-nosticate Miscarriages.

Friendship Is Seldom Lasting But Between Equals, Or Where The Superiority On One Side Is Reduced By Some Equivalent Advantage On The Other.

The Mind Is Never Satisfied With The Objects Immediately Before It, But Is Always Breaking Away From The Present Moment, And Losing Itself In Schemes Of Future Felicity... The Natural Flights Of The Human Mind Are Not From Pleasure To Pleasure, But From Hope To Hope.

Life Of Ages, Richly Poured, Love Of God Unspent And Free, Flowing In The Prophet's Word And The People's Liberty! Never Was To Chosen Race That Unstinted Tide Confined; Thine Is Every Time And Place, Fountain Sweet Of Heart And Mind!

At Length Weariness Succeeds To Labor, And The Mind Lies At Ease In The Contemplation Of Her Own Attainments Without Any Desire Of New Conquests Or Excursions. This Is The Age Of Recollection And Narrative; The Opinions Are Settled, And The Avenues Of Apprehension Shut Against Any New Intelligence; The Days That Are To Follow Must Pass In The Inculcation Of Precepts Already Collected, And Assertion Of Tenets Already Received; Nothing Is Henceforward So Odious As Opposition, So Insolent As Doubt, Or So Dangerous As Novelty.

The Great End Of Prudence Is To Give Cheerfulness To Those Hours Which Splendor Cannot Gild, And Acclamation Cannot Exhilarate.

As The Greatest Liar Tells More Truths Than Falsehoods, So May It Be Said Of The Worst Man, That He Does More Good Than Evil.

This World, Where Much Is To Be Done And Little To Be Known.

The General Remedy Of Those Who Are Uneasy Without Knowing The Cause Is Change Of Place.

We Ought Not To Raise Expectations Which It Is Not In Our Power To Satisfy.-it Is More Pleasing To See Smoke Brightening Into Flame, Than Flame Sinking Into Smoke.

There Must Always Be A Struggle Between A Father And Son, While One Aims At Power And The Other At Independence.

Politics Are Now Nothing More Than Means Of Rising In The World. With This Sole View Do Men Engage In Politics, And Their Whole Conduct Proceeds Upon It.

Revenge Is An Act Of Passion; Vengeance Of Justice. Injuries Are Revenged; Crimes Are Avenged.

In All Evils Which Admit A Remedy, Impatience Is To Be Avoided, Because It Wastes That Time And Attention In Complaints, That, If Properly Applied Might Remove The Cause.

When I Find That So Much Of My Life Has Stolen Unprofitably Away, And That I Can Descry By Retrospection Scarcely A Few Single Days Properly And Vigorously Employed, Why Do I Yet Try To Resolve Again? I Try, Because Reformation Is Necessary And Despair Is Criminal. I Try, In Humble Hope Of The Help Of God.

Whatever Advantage We Snatch Beyond A Certain Portion Allotted Us By At Nature, Is Like Money Spent Before It Is Due, Which, At The Time Of Regular Payment, Will Be Missed And Regretted.

He Who Would Have Fine Guests, Let Him Have A Fine Wife.

A Man, Sir, Should Keep His Friendship In A Constant Repair.

Madam, Before You Flatter A Man So Grossly To His Face, You Should Consider Whether Or Not Your Flattery Is Worth His Having.

Sir, You Have But Two Topics, Yourself And Me. I Am Sick Of Both.

Admiration Must Be Continued By That Novelty Which First Produces It; And How Much Soever Is Given, There Must Always Be Reason To Imagine That More Remains.

Justice Is Indispensably And Universally Necessary, And What Is Necessary Must Always Be Limited, Uniform, And Distinct

I Wish There Were Some Cure, Like The Lover's Leap, For All Heads Of Which Some Single Idea Has Obtained An Unreasonable And Irregular Possession.

Words Become Low By The Occasions To Which They Are Applied, Or The General Character Of Them Who Use Them; And The Disgust Which They Produce Arises From The Revival Of Those Images With Which They Are Commonly United.

The Natural Progress Of The Works Of Men Is From Rudeness To Convenience, From Convenience To Elegance, And From Elegance To Nicety.

Nothing Is More Common Than Mutual Dislike, Where Mutual Approbation Is Particularly Expected.

That Friendship May Be At Once Fond And Lasting, There Must Not Only Be Equal Virtue On Each Part, But Virtue Of The Same Kind; Not Only The Same End Must Be Proposed, But The Same Means Must Be Approved By Both.

The Majority Of A Society Is The True Definition Of The Public.

A Married Man Has Many Cares, But A Bachelor No Pleasures.

I Am Sorry I Have Not Learnt To Play At Cards. It Is Very Useful In Life: It Generates Kindness, And Consolidates Society.

Subordination Tends Greatly To Human Happiness. Were We All Upon An Equality, We Should Have No Other Enjoyment Than Mere Animal Pleasure.

Age Is Rarely Despised But When It Is, Contemptible.

If In An Actor There Appears An Utter Vacancy Of Meaning, A Frigid Equality, A Stupid Languor, A Torpid Apathy, The Greatest Kindness That Can Be Shown Him Is A Speedy Sentence Of Expulsion.

We Love To Overlook The Boundaries Which We Do Not Wish To Pass.

No Man Can Taste The Fruits Of Autumn While He Is Delighting His Scent With The Flowers Of Spring.

Just Praise Is Only A Debt, But Flattery Is A Present. The Acknowledgment Of Those Virtues On Which Conscience Congratulates Us Is A Tribute That We Can At Any Tine Exact With Confidence; But The Celebration Of Those Which We Only Feign, Or Desire Without Any Vigorous Endeavours To Attain Them, Is Received As A Confession Of Sovereignty Over Regions Never Conquered, As A Favourable Decision Of Disputable Claims, And Is More Welcome As More Gratuitous.

If Misery Be The Effect Of Virtue, It Ought To Be Reverenced; If Of Ill-fortune, To Be Pitied; And If Of Vice, Not To Be Insulted, Because It Is Perhaps Itself A Punishment Adequate To The Crime By Which It Was Produced.

Sir, They Are A Race Of Convicts, And Ought To Be Thankful For Any Thing We Allow Them Short Of Hanging.

When Any Anxiety Or Gloom Of The Mind Takes Hold Of You, Make It A Rule Not To Publish It By Complaining; But Exert Yourselves To Hide It, And By Endeavoring To Hide It You Drive It Away.

I Am A Friend To Subordination, As Most Conducive To The Happiness Of Society. There Is A Reciprocal Pleasure In Governing And Being Governed.

Though It Is Evident, That Not More Than One Age Or People Can Deserve The Censure Of Being More Averse From Learning Than Any Other, Yet At All Times Knowledge Must Have Encountered Impediments, And Wit Been Mortified With Contempt, Or Harassed With Persecution.

Such Is The Common Process Of Marriage. A Youth And Maiden Exchange Meeting By Chance, Or Brought Together By Artifice, Exchange Glances, Reciprocate Civilities, Go Home, And Dream Of One Another. Having Little To Divert Attention, Or Diversify Thought, They Find Themselves Uneasy When They Are Apart, And Therefore Conclude That They Shall Be Happy Together. They Marry, And Discover What Nothing But Voluntary Blindness Had Before Concealed; They Wear Out Life In Altercations, And Charge Nature With Cruelty.

The Insolence Of Wealth Will Creep Out.

Whoever Thinks Of Going To Bed Before Twelve O'clock Is A Scoundrel.

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